Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Democracy can never come in the way of economic growth if the growth is perceived by the majority to be beneficial to it. In cases where it is not perceived as beneficial by the majority then the notion of economic growth itself is questionable as it won’t benefit the majority of the country's population.

What we need to understand here is how we perceive economic growth.
Building Roads, retails malls, office spaces, power plants and other infrastructure by acquiring land from individuals and then relocating them to places further far away from the development or where they won’t receive power from the plant they gave their lands for, would contribute a percentage or two to the GDP numbers. However in absolute terms this was detrimental to the individuals who sacrificed their land. They did not realize any economic growth in the process.

Democracy provides for representation of these individuals and they insisting on better returns for their land should not be viewed against economic growth but for it, as a better compensation will make them participants in the economic process.
Economic growth needs to be perceived in terms of growth of the individuals against GDP numbers. In India over the last five years, GDP growth has certainly declined but the number of tier III towns, semi urban markets and rural commerce has increased many folds. Sadly this doesn't add much percentage to the GDP figure but is very essential in terms of economic growth and self sufficiency of the Nation.

On the contrary, China has adopted Build first Occupy Later strategy. It provides more emphasis on development of infrastructure, facilities and services and then wants to realign its population to suit the same. This adds a lot to the GDP but reduces the freedom on part of individuals and society in general. This makes the masses highly dependent on the Autocratic Leadership and its policies and decisions. It reduces the impact an individual can have on building and sustaining his own economic growth. As an individual’s influence is largely reduced, this restricts the growth of self-sustaining centers of economic activity and the whole population is highly dependent on the Leadership to deliver.

China’s Regime has so far got its act right, rather we are forced to think so as it’s the same regime which controls dispersion of information out of the country. However continuing to do so will be a challenge and one wrong move can have massive implications on the country.
India has been the tortoise in this race so far. India’s democratic process surely does take a longer time to take decisions, but it provides greater freedom to individuals to participate in economic growth thereby reducing its dependence on internal and external factors.

The challenges faced in Indian Democracy are those which need to be mitigated by democracy and not caused by democracy.

Note, I have refrained from citing the current political scenario and politics of
religion and caste. Those who say these are affecting us because we are a
democracy, consider what would happen if an All Powerful Regime imbibes the colors
of religion and caste.